Two Republican women, one a critic of Donald Trump and the other an enthusiastic supporter of the former president, awaited the results of the primaries in Arizona and Washington state on Wednesday to gain more insight into his control over the party.
In a Washington state race that has not yet been called, U.S. Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler was leading Trump-endorsed opponent Joe Kent 24.5 per cent to 20.1 per cent with 52 per cent of the expected vote in.
This comes a day after voters selected several candidates who supported Trump’s 2020 election lies in multiple primaries.
Herrera Beutler is one of a group of House Republicans who have been the target of a Trump retaliation campaign after supporting his impeachment in response to his supporters’ deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Trump-backed gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who actively endorses his election claims, led Karrin Taylor Robson 46.2 per cent to 44.4 per cent with 81 per cent of the votes cast in Arizona, a crucial battleground state.
Former television anchor Lake has stated that she would not have endorsed Biden’s statewide victory in 2020, echoing Trump’s election lies.
Lake hinted that she might not accept loss during a recent campaign appearance when she asserted—without providing any supporting evidence—that fraud had already happened during early voting.
Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, whom Trump unsuccessfully attempted to persuade to prevent certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s election on January 6, supports Taylor Robson.
In the first statewide election since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Kansas voters soundly rejected a ballot initiative that would have endangered access to abortion. This was a significant victory for abortion rights activists.
The Kansas outcome signalled that Democratic supporters would become more motivated by their ire over the Supreme Court’s decision in June, especially at a time when many Americans are holding the Biden administration responsible for skyrocketing food and gas costs.
However, Tuesday, one of the most important midterm primary nights of the year, also highlighted Trump’s enduring dominance among Republicans and the general acceptance of his bogus allegations that the 2020 race was fixed.
In the race for the Senate in Arizona, former tech executive Blake Masters, who has backed Trump’s false accusations of fraud, won the Republican nomination. He will now take on Senator Mark Kelly, who is one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents. Trump supports Masters, and tech tycoon Peter Thiel also supports him.
In a statement released on Wednesday, Kelly campaign manager Emma Brown claimed that Blake Masters “has dangerous ideals that are radically out of step with Arizona and destructive to Arizona families, like a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest and privatising social security.”
The far-right challenger John Gibbs defeated U.S. Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan, who, like Herrera Beutler, was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
During the Republican primary, Gibbs, who was supported by Trump, benefited from Democratic advertising as part of a risky and hotly contested effort to try and promote more frail Republican candidates in swing districts even as party officials warn that they pose a danger to democracy. View More
Party leaders were probably encouraged by the Kansas outcome because Biden’s unpopularity was weighing on Democrats ahead of the election in November.
In certain swing districts, Democratic candidates are banding together more and more around the abortion debate to fight off assaults from Republicans, who are expected to win control of the House of Representatives and maybe the Senate.
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Republicans would be able to thwart Biden’s legislative agenda while conducting politically damaging hearings if they controlled either house.
